It’s time for another Partner Update newscast. This week, Andrew’s feeling a bit hungry and tries unsuccessfully to eat an air sandwich. The concept of an air sandwich is explained in detail during a live Virtual Partner Velocity broadcast with speaker, strategist, and New How author Nilofer Merchant. While the air sandwich may be low in fat and calories, it’s also lacking in taste. In the business world, an air sandwich can mean a company lacks innovation. Grab a real sandwich and tune into this episode of Partner Update to learn how to get rid of air sandwiches.

This newcast’s highlights also include: WebEx and Jabber news from the Collaboration Summit, incentives for partners, SMARTnet service deals, CRN’s Top 100 stars of the IT industry, how to enter our new contest, ways Cisco is helping partners with marketing, a recap of our Twitter chat with Cisco’s VP of Global Partner Marketing, a new free social media ebook for partners, and more.

Keep reading for additional information on the news we covered, links, and time stamps so you can forward ahead to the items that interest you.

At the Cisco Collaboration Summit 2011 in Miami today, Cisco unveiled new solutions to help people collaborate more effectively in the post-PC era. This era moves past the limitations of “PC centric” communication and instead evokes a “people centric” approach where people can collaborate anywhere, anytime and on any device or application. The advancements Cisco is introducing today –from Cisco WebEx to Cisco Jabber — can change how people meet utilizing expanded cloud-based services, and can give workers an easy way to collaborate directly from Web applications they use every day, driving new levels of business productivity and competitiveness.

I sat down with Murali Sitaram, Vice President and General Manager of the Cisco Collaboration Software Group, at Collaboration Summit to learn more about these new announcements and how they fit into Cisco strategy.

Cisco’s Collaboration Summit starts today in beautiful Miami, Florida. On tap is a lively event with demos, partner booths, news announcements, solutions, and sessions that promise to change the way you connect and collaborate.

Whether you’re joining the event live or virtually, here’s a handy checklist to make sure you don’t miss anything this week.

Be sure to watch the keynote so you can hear Cisco’s Collaboration vision and see new announcements that enable people-centric collaboration. Register now for the event on Nov 16, 9-10:30 am EST! (A replay will be available for those who miss it.)

Cius is a big part of Cisco’s Collaboration solutions. At the event, ambassasors will be walking around to give demos. If you can’t be there live, watch this video to get the latest on Cius and how it’s helping to increase collaboration:

How many meetings have you spent being distracted by characters such as the heavy breather, the distracted driver or the hold music culprit? Web meetings can be a really productive way to stay in touch and work together with your colleagues and clients but there are many considerations to keep in mind to make sure you’re not a meeting offender. We pulled together a short video with some pointers to remind us all of the standard WebEx etiquette.

5 WebEx Etiquette Tips

1. Look your best: WebEx is the ideal place to hone what we like to call your “business mullet”: business up top, party below the camera. If you keep things professional (read: no bathrobes or Hawaiian shirts), you can feel free to wear your sweats and slippers when not in view. Just remember to turn your camera off before you stand up or else be ready for the onslaught of office hazing. (see this in the video at :32)

2. Know when to share video: Many computers and mobile devices now offer built-in cameras, which are a great way to connect with the people you meet with… but not every situation is the same. Use common sense – keep your camera off while you’re driving or in a chaotic environment such as the airport that will be distracting for others involved. Put it on when you want to have a more natural conversation or show product details and examples. (see this tip in the video at :54)

3. Keep your microphone muted: You can’t always control when your doorbell will ring, when the car behind you honks or when your neighbor’s dog will go after the mailman. When in doubt, keep your line muted (either on your phone or by manually muting yourself on WebEx). If you’re the meeting host, you also have the power to mute people manually so you don’t waste precious time asking the heavy breather to tone it down. Read More »

This certainly has been a monumental year for Cisco’s Hosted Collaboration Solutions (HCS), as many service providers such as Verizon and Orange Business Services, embraced the cloud and the potential services that can come with it. In the case of their business customers, these service providers now offer them a slew of unified communications tools (such as video conferencing and mobility solutions ) through the cloud to allow their employees to communicate and collaborate wherever they are and on whatever device.

Even our partners are seeing the value that collaboration via the cloud can offer its customers; as one of our channel partners, Neutral Tandem, announced yesterday. As an expert in operating and managing IP networks, Neutral Tandem introduced the first cloud-based collaboration service in the United States specifically developed to be resold by Cisco’s Value-Added Reseller (VAR) community and System Integrators (SIs). The service, based on Cisco’s HCS, will enable VARs/SIs to deliver a full suite of unified communications and collaboration applications.

I guess you can say that cloud collaboration is in full swing as it continues to gain traction steadily in the market. Read More »

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